A Guide to Choosing the Best Microphone for Live Streaming

There is no doubt that streaming has become one of the primary components of the gaming industry. There is also no doubt that we are living in the best era for gamers yet.

The ability to gain a mass following through streaming can allow us gamers to monetize what we love doing most. Platforms such as Twitch and YouTube have opened those doors for us. The more people doing it, though, the more competitive it can be, and high-quality audio can easily separate one gamer from the next.

Unfortunately that old ‘gaming’ headset you pulled out of your closet probably lacks a certain shine in the microphone department, meaning you need to begin thinking of headphones and microphones as two separate purchases.

Fortunately, we know audio, and there are endless options out on the market to take your streaming to the next level.

Let’s take a look at what you need to keep in mind when choosing a good microphone for streaming.  There’s quite a bit actually, so let’s get to it.

Live Streaming From Your Computer

If you’re playing the latest games on your computer, you’ve probably already decked it out with the proper processing power. Streaming to Twitch or YouTube will also require some of that extra processing power, so keep that in mind before you begin.

Before even considering a streaming microphone purchase, you should make sure that your computer has baseline specs of:

• An Intel Core i5-4670 Processing Unit or the equivalent
• 8GB of Ram
• Graphics Card w/ Direct 10x or Higher

You must also have a reliable internet connection with sufficient uploading speed. To stream at a decent quality, broadcasters recommend having an uploading speed of at least 3mbps.

Now that you have your computer and internet speeds in order, let’s focus on what you’ll need to share that delightful commentary alongside your video streams.

Starting With What You Have

Before you splurge on new external hardware, there’s a good chance that you might have a reasonably good webcam that can give you decent audio quality to go along with your video.

Obviously, this depends on the specs of your machine, though it certainly is the most budget-friendly option and an excellent way to test the waters before you invest in something.

You should consider, however, that the majority of professional streamers are using audio units separate from their webcams/cameras, as the audio from webcams can present a few issues.

• For starters, they pick up far too much room noise, meaning they’ll have a more difficult time honing in on your voice. Nobody wants to listen to your air conditioner for an hour!
• Secondly, it’s near impossible to properly adjust the volume on webcam microphones, even with the software on your computer.

External Microphones

If you ultimately decide to go with an external microphone to get that crystal-clear audio, one of the first issues you’ll most likely run into is:

“Should you buy an XLR microphone or a USB microphone?”

As a user of both, we can say with confidence that XLR microphones are where to look if you’re serious about streaming audio.

With that being said, let’s discuss the pros and cons of each:

USB Microphones

Convenience and Simplicity

By far, USB microphones are much more convenient and straightforward to setup.

All you’ll need is your microphone, your computer (which has USB ports), and your voice. It indeed is that easy to get started.

There is pretty much no additional setup after you plug your USB mic in.  You may or may not need to install drivers on your computer to get it up and running, but compare that to purchasing a preamp, interface, and mixer for your XLR, and you’ll find that a USB microphone lets you cruise down easy street.

Price

Not only are USB mics far more convenient in comparison to XLRs, but they are also much cheaper. That’s because USB microphones are made to mimic proper, professional audio setups without the professional upfront costs or the variety of additional components.

If you’re just getting started with streaming, there’s no reason to spend a month’s paycheck on performing what will initially be simple recording tasks. Realistically, you should be paying no more than $500 on a quality USB microphone.

Quality

Unfortunately, USB mics don’t perform at the level of XLR microphones regarding quality. They typically have harder times picking up nuances in sound. That being said, most of your viewers won’t notice the “analog tinge” anyway so that added quality may not matter in the long run.

However, USB microphones are notorious for having latency, a major issue if you’re getting into streaming. For those of you who don’t know what latency is in audio, it’s essentially the delay between the audio being recorded and that same audio being played back.

This can result in an echo effect that can be incredibly distracting. That being said, some higher end USB microphones contain headphone jacks so that you can operate them as audio output devices. If they don’t, you’ll have to do your best to configure your latency settings on your recording software to decrease the delay.

XLR Microphones

Additional Components

XLR microphones require a few additional components so that they can be used for recording your streaming audio:

• A male to female XLR cable
• An Audio Interface or Mixer

This can be a good and bad thing.

On the plus side, if something were to go wrong with one of the components, you could easily swap them out like you would with a computer. A USB microphone is one single component, meaning if it dies, you have to start all over.

Because there are different components, you’ll also have more room to upgrade as you become more experienced, and you’ll have more control over your audio ‘rig’ than if you just had one microphone.

As an example, if you wanted to have guests on your stream at some point, or build a ‘studio’ to run your streams, XLR microphones will give you the versatility to upgrade or troubleshoot by swapping cables and interfaces.

On the bad side, these extra components can be a bit of a learning curve and a hassle for you to deal with, and the complexity of setting something up if you have a ‘plug-and-play’ attitude can definitely be undesirable.

Dynamic vs Condenser

When you begin looking into XLR microphones, the two types that you’ll commonly find are Dynamic microphones and Condenser microphones.

Each of them has their own pros and cons.

1 - Condenser Microphones

Condenser microphones are quite popular in vocal recording, meaning they are a typical purchase for streamers. This is because they are built with accuracy in mind.

The issue with their accuracy, though, is that they may be too sensitive in rooms that aren’t adequately treated, meaning they’ll pick up unwanted sounds like echo, air conditioning, or the dog barking across the street.

We recommend looking into condenser microphones ONLY if you have a quiet or treated space to record in.

Condenser microphones also require what is called phantom power, which a solid audio interface or mixer will typically provide.

2- Dynamic Microphones

Dynamic Microphones work opposite of Condenser Microphones in a few ways:

• They’re more durable
• They’re not as sensitive (making them better for untreated environments)
• They don’t require Phantom Power
• They are typically cheaper

Which Should I Choose?

If you are serious about getting high fidelity voice recordings, have an acoustically treated room or quiet recording environment, and have the extra cash, we highly recommend getting a condenser microphone.

If you want something low cost and durable and you don’t have a treated room, you can get quite a bit out of a dynamic microphone.

Audio Interfaces

If you ultimately decide to go the XLR route, you’ll need an audio interface. Essentially an audio interface takes your voice from a microphone and turns it into a digital signal that your computer can recognize.

Though the components of an audio interface can affect your sound quality, as a new streamer, you shouldn’t overthink it, as it’s easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of high-end external hardware.

That being said, here are a few things you can consider:

Phantom Power

If you’re getting an audio interface, make sure to get one with 48v Phantom Power. Even if you decide to go with a dynamic microphone, having Phantom Power can give you more versatility down the road.

Number of Inputs

The cool thing about audio interfaces is that they can allow for multiple inputs, unlike USB microphones.

Consider if you ever want to stream with a friend in the same room.

If you want to hook up two microphones, three, or even eight for your whole stream team, you’ll need that number of inputs on your interface to supply all those microphones with connectivity.

Features

If you are dead set on having the best sound straight out of your microphone and into your computer, it can be nice to have an interface with features such as EQ, Noise Gates, and Compression.

• EQ can help to cut out the nasty mumbo jumbo and ‘undesirable parts of your voice’ while enhancing others
• Compression can help to keep your voice at an even volume so that you don’t go from 0-60 in your audience’s ears at the climax of your stream
• Noise Gates can keep out the pesky air conditioner or any other low volume noises out of your audio stream

Obviously, these features can be a bit overkill for simple audio streaming, though if you’re set on having the best of the best, great interfaces will provide these things.

Headsets

So you’ve decided to cut the cost and hassle of setting up an external microphone and instead want to go with a headset for your Twitch or YouTube stream.

Awesome!

Like with external microphones, there are pros and cons with headsets.

Convenience

This is probably the main (and one of the few) pros about headsets. Many streamers dread setting up a microphone, mixer, etc. to go live on their stream, so rather than doing that, they use headsets that they can easily plug in, throw on, and talk to their stream / listen back to the audio, all with one compact, user-friendly device.

Quality

Unfortunately, the majority of headset manufacturers create their headsets with far better monitoring quality than microphone quality.

While it isn’t impossible to find a headset with decent microphone quality, at that point, you’re in the price range of external microphones, defeating the second pro, which is that headsets are typically lower in price range.

The 5 Best Mics for Streaming Compared

Now that we’ve gone through everything you should consider before picking up your first streaming mic, let’s look at the products we like and would highly recommend!